The BRICS group of nations has decided to invite six countries, two among them are African nations, three from Asia, and one from South Africa. This firmly shows the diversity of the bloc. The new invitees are – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to become new members of the bloc. Host and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement on Thursday.
The three-day summit in Johannesburg, South Africa ends on Thursday, and the discussion of BRICS expansion has taken centre stage. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
There were disagreements among the leaders on how quickly and how much to expand the bloc, despite the fact that all BRICS members had publicly declared support for it.
The six applicant nations or rather members will formally join on January 1, 2024. The future option of admitting additional nations has been left open by both Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Ramaphosa continued, “Other phases of this growth process will come after the first phase, on which we have reached unanimity.
Lula on his path said that the promises of globalization had fallen short and added that it was necessary to revive collaboration with developing nations because “there is a risk of nuclear war,” an apparent allusion to the escalating hostilities between Russia and the West over the conflict in the Ukraine.
New Opportunities
According to Dilma Rousseff, President of the New Development Bank, which was established by the BRICS nations in 2015, the institution ca aid in financing initiatives for African nations to address their most pressing problems.
Rousseff, the former president of Brazil, stated in a speech in Johannesburg that the BRICS nations are “good partners” for Africa.
According to her, in addition to financing educational programs in Africa, the BRICS bank will also fund physical and digital infrastructure developments.